HC 6

Q6. Did God, then, create man so wicked and perverse?

No, on the contrary, God created man good and in His image, that is, in true righteousness and holiness, so that he might rightly know God His Creator, heartily love Him, and live with Him in eternal blessedness to praise and glorify Him.

Proof texts

• Gen. 1:31 — [31] And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
• Gen. 1:26-27 — [26] Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” [27] So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
• Eph. 4:24 — [24] and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
• Col. 3:10 — [10] and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
• Ps. 8 — [1] O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. [2] Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. [3] When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, [4] what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? [5] Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. [6] You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, [7] all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, [8] the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. [9] O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

For discussion

1. The Assembly cited Gen. 1:31 in support of this answer. Read it in context — how does it bear on what is claimed here?
2. 5 passages are cited here. Which does the most work, and is anything claimed that the proofs do not obviously carry?
3. WSC Q13 treats the same ground. What does it add, and why might it put things differently?
4. WLC Q21 treats the same ground. What does it add, and why might it put things differently?

Read alongside

WSC Q13 · WLC Q21 · WCF 6.1 · BC 4.1 · BC 4.2 · 1689 6.1 · 1689 6.2 · 1689 6.3 · 1689 6.4 · 1689 6.5